This invention relates to apparatus for pollenating plants and, more particularly, to apparatus for pollenating single cross hybrid seed corn.
In the production of single cross hybrid seed corn, it is standard practice to plant several rows of female corn on opposite sides of one or more rows of male corn, the stalks of the male corn having tassels with pods which contain pollen. The tassels of the stalks of the female corn are cut away and such corn is pollenated by spreading the pollen from the pods of the male corn onto the silk of the ears of the female corn.
Heretofore, the pollen from the pods of the male corn most usually has been transferred to the silk of the female corn by relying on wind or insects to carry the pollen, by using the propeller wash from an airplane to stir and distribute the pollen or by hand bagging and manually spreading the pollen. Hand bagging requires considerable labor and the other methods are relatively inefficient because much of the pollen simply falls to the ground rather than being deposited onto the female corn and because it is difficult to obtain pollenation at the proper time.